cul-de-sac French · revision 16117

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=compound|attested=1307}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ky.d(ə).sak/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''cul-de-sac''' ''m'' (plural culs-de-sac)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is a compound of [[cul]] “bottom, deepest part of a thing”, [[de]] and [[sac]] “bag”, named from the likeness of shape: a street closed at one end like the bottom of a bag.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The TLFi's first record, ''cul-de-çac'' in a Paris document of 1307, already means a street with no way out;^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) the GLLF and the Petit Robert date the word to the early 13th century.^(GLLF 1989)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ By extension it was used for any place with no exit (1636, Monet), and figuratively for a situation, career or undertaking that leads nowhere, first in Saint-Simon (before 1755).^(GLLF 1989)^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) In anatomy it names the blind end of a cavity, as in ''cul-de-sac vaginal'' (1835), earlier than the TLFi's first example of 1910.^(BHVF)^(TLFi) Rey notes that compounds with ''cul'' such as this one, innocent as they are, were denounced as low in the 17th and 18th centuries;^(DHLF 1992) ''impasse'' is its synonym.^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi)

+

+ English took [[m|en|cul-de-sac]] in 1738 as an anatomical term; it is used of a dead-end street from 1819.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1307 – ''Cul-de-çac'' “dead-end street” is recorded in Paris.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1636 – Monet uses it for any place with no exit.^(GLLF 1989)

+ * before 1755 – Saint-Simon uses it for a situation that leads nowhere.^(TLFi)

+ * 1738 – English borrows it as an anatomical term.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1835 – A medical journal writes of the ''cul-de-sac vaginal''.^(BHVF)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|dead end|alt=dead-end]] street; an [[impasse]].^(Petit Robert 2007)^(TLFi)

+ # A passage or gallery closed at one end.^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # ''(anatomy)'' The blind end of a cavity: ''les culs-de-sac de la plèvre''.^(GLLF 1989)^(TLFi)

+ # ''(figurative)'' A career, undertaking or situation that leads nowhere.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[cul]]

+ * [[sac]]

+ * [[impasse]]

+ * [[en|cul-de-sac]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}